Boy Cheerleaders
BBC 2 Filmed & Directed
Quark Films
3th Oct 2010
Executive Producer: Nick Mirsky
Photos philfisk.com
IDFA International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2011
HotDocs International Documentary Festival 2011
“If those who proselytise on behalf of the Big Society have slightest bit of common sense, they will ring the BBC this morning, order several thousand copies of last night film Boy Cheerleaders and post them to every sceptic of plans for the regeneration of civic society with whom they are familiar. James Newton’s superb and compelling documentary”
On a South Leeds estate in the heart of Rugby League territory, a group of nine young boys are preparing for competition. But they are not taking on Bradford Northern or Hull Kingston Rovers. This is a documentary about Britain's leading all-boys cheerleading team - the DAZL Diamonds and their coach Ian Rodley.
“You might make all sorts of assumptions about the sorts of boys who’d join a cheerleading team, especially if it was the country’s only boys’ cheerleading team but this clever,
compassionate film blasted many of them to bits ”
“For all the boys’ exuberance – and their third place gained at the UK championships – it was a melancholy tale. You could see the hope – not of further dancing success, but of more distant, unarticulated dreams. If there’s anything more guileless than a prepubescent boy in front of the camera, I really don’t want to see it. It’s beautiful and it tends to break your heart. ”